It’s that time of the semester again: I’ve just finished midterms and used fall break to get a jump start on upcoming projects for my classes. There’s a foggy idea forming in my mind about the amount of work piled on my plate, an unending academic grind in the weeks ahead. Any day now I expect the specter of academic foreboding to come knocking at my door, whispering to me to put off my finals and internship applications in favor of readings, homework, and student organizations. My procrastination is gathering on the horizon, and once I start slipping, it’s hard to overcome.  Fortunately for me, though, procrastination works like sleep debt. With a large enough disaster, I’ll find the motivation to av...

 I told myself this semester that I would make an effort to find truly relaxing outdoor spaces on campus. After a summer spent in a city with few opportunities to enjoy nature, a place full of greenery was at the top of my list of prospects. I wanted somewhere to attach memories to; in my first year I had made many lasting memories with friends but had fewer significant feelings attached to physical spaces. In my experience, very few Obies have ventured into the territory of the Art Building. To most of Oberlin, the Allen Memorial Art Museum and the surrounding art-related spaces remain unvisited, meant only for the study of art. But this collection of buildings is worthy of study in their own right. The museum is...

Last Wednesday, the Cat in the Cream was packed with students chatting under the venue’s familiar twinkling lights, nibbling on cookies, drinking tea, and anxiously waiting for their peers to come on stage and take off their clothes.  It might seem unconventional, but shows like these have become a celebrated tradition at Oberlin over the past four years since Oberlin’s own burlesque troupe, OBurlesque, was founded.  Burlesque is a style of performance that is broadly satirical, parodic, and theatrical in nature. The term usually refers to strip routines in which the dancer plays at sexuality through exaggerated character routines or comedic bits.  “So basically, the classic burlesque is kind of old-...